Was contacted by an attorney in regards to possible forthcoming Class Action Lawsuit

Posted by Grant P on 05/26/2010

North American Bandcard users there may be justice in the near future!!

After posting a 100% truthful scathing review elsewhere on the web I was contact by an attorney that was inquiring about Bancards Slow or No payment history and was then asked how I felt about joining in on a possible forthcoming class action lawsuit. I have actually never been in a class action lawsuit before nor have I even sued anyone, but my dealings with this company have frustrated me to no end. I have had to follow up on 90% of my charges in order to receive payment, sometimes weeks over due! I have visited both of the buildings in Troy Mi after being told time after time the check is in the mail or I must be the one doing something wrong. I sat down in the Lobby with a member of their customer service team and she then had them create a new merchant ID for me and we ran through a transaction and I still had to call back a week later and was told at that time that the âauto batchâ feature is junk and doesnât work. If itâs not one thing itâs another! I would advise everyone dealing with this company to record your phone calls every time you have to call in. Time after time I was told one thing one day and then told the opposite the next.

Well not planning on actually typing another long drawn out scathing review, Lets just say âStop Do Not Even Think About Using North American Bancard!!!!â

I think I will do as instructed by the attorney and file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau ( the real one, not the fake on Bancard setup) and wait to for more info in regards to the Class Action Lawsuit.

And to think all I want is out of my contract, I am sure they will come back with section this sentence that, but the sad thing is they have NEVER lived up to there on contract!! I should not have to pay $420.00 to get out of this BS contract!!!

I would encourage everyone that has had problems with North American Bancard to register your complaints with the Better Business Bureau and join the Facebook Group: North American Bancard Sucks

"A group of like minded individuals who know North American Bancard Sucks. They do not uphold their end of the contract but expect you to pay to get out of it."

Since I have posted this complaint I have had to follow up on 100% of my charges and every time I have to follow up on one they are saying it's once again this or that that I am doing wrong, thing is I am still following the same exact routine that they created with me sitting in there lobby. How can it be this or that when it is the same routine time after time.

Fraud! I will gladly join in the class action lawsuit now.

Company Response 6/9/2010:June 7, 2010
Dear Merchant,

North American Bancard works very diligently to resolve all customer issues and complaints. Since our inception in 1992, we have worked with over 125,000 merchants of all sizes and levels of complexity. We provide a high level of service and support to our customers, as is evidenced by the low number of complaints we handle. Occasionally we, like any other large company, may make a mistake or mishandle an issue. When these are brought to our attention we resolve them to the best of our ability. Our 250+ employees work hard every day to make doing business with NAB a pleasure for our merchants and stakeholders, all we ask is the opportunity to recover well.

Per the notes on your Merchant Account 87*********72 notes, you have been in contact with both our Customer Service and Technical Support departments.

In regards to deposits for transactions, it indicates that there was an issue on how to use Touch Tone Capture and has been addressed with training.

If you feel that your account was incorrectly debited, or your fees have been inadequately advised, then we would need specific information in order to properly address the concerns or correct any errors. Please have your Merchant Account number ready, and contact me at 248-283-6059 so that your specific situation may be properly researched and addressed.

Sincerely,

Diana

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Proceed At Your Own Risk

Posted by bostitch on 04/03/2009

I signed up with NAB for a credit card terminal for my small business a couple of years ago. With the assistance of their "agent" I tried for over 4 months to install the terminal in my office and get it to work with my phone system, but for whatever reason, it did not work. I requested a 2nd unit, which NAB promptly delivered. After many more attempts, interfacing with their tech support department and my agent, still no connection. During this time, I could not make any charges with the terminal but I was still paying the minimum monthly fees.

Still wanting to make it work, I continued to bother my agent to help me with the installation or to do something with NAB to get them to either send me a working machine or to find some solution so that I could make credit card transactions. Shortly after that point (not necessarily NAB's fault), my agent stopped returning my calls and emails and stopped dealing with me, probably because he was also utterly frustrated.

What followed was several calls to NAB during which I explained the situation, asked if they would stop debiting my account until I could get the terminal situation worked out and asked for help on what to do. Each time they told me that they could not stop the debiting and said that only my agent could stop the charges. Of course, he was gone and out of the picture. By this point, including the start up costs, I was $500 in the hole, and not able to even make a single credit card charge.

Out of complete and utter frustration with the situation, I notified NAB in writing that I wanted to terminate the contract with them because I was getting nothing from them and despite all of my attempts to work with them and their agent, the machine simply did not work in my office. I even followed up my letter with a phone call and spoke to someone to make sure that they received the letter and was advised they had received it, that my contract would be canceled and that the monthly debits would stop.

PROBLEM SOLVED? Not quite.

Begin CHAPTER 2 Of my odyssey with NAB.

A month later, I received a letter from NAB informing me that because I canceled my contract, they were calling me in breach and they were going to charge me for all of the payments they were due on the balance of the contract (3 years) and that they would schedule an auto debit from my account of a little over $1,000 to cover the costs. I checked my online bank account and noticed that they did in fact take out the $1000. This auto debiting thing is something that I had never had much experience with and did not realize how lethal it can be and how powerless you are to challenge it. But NAB makes you agree to this in order to get their services.
Needless to say I was furious.

To make matters worse, the letter was sent out 3 weeks after it was dated. This conveniently allowed NAB to grab the money from my account before notifying me that they were going to do it - just in case I decided to close the account or otherwise outmaneuver them. And it worked because my bank told me that they couldn't even help me and that it was between me and NAB and I had to get NAB to stop the auto debiting....or close my account, but even this would not guarantee anything because the bank was obligated to honor the auto debit (since I agreed) and that I may still have to pay even if the account is closed.

Of course, I was furious over this whole thing. I got on the phone immediately and started the process of trying to get to the bottom of why they took my money. I was told that it was because I breached the contract and that the fine print legally entitles them to do that. I explained my situation: that I had no working terminal for 5 months, made so many calls I lost track, that nobody from NAB gave me any help or offered any solutions to get my machine up and running, and that their agent bailed on me. In short I was told that all of this was my problem and that their contract assumes that I would have a working phone line? Huh? I was talking to the NAB agent from the same business phone.

Yes, I did terminate the contract, but it was justifiable and with good reason. IN all of my discussions with NAB reps before I terminated, not one person ever hinted at what a disaster it would be for me to terminate or gave me a clue that they were going to make a run on my bank account to grab everything they thought they were due. No alternate arrangements were suggested, no attempts were made to help me or to work out the situation to get my continued business.

Even when I tried to go back and reinstate the agreement and try to work something out that would allow me to get my money back and just ride out the balance of the contract and see if I could try to get the terminal working or just ride out the contract and pay as I go and see what happens, but NAB told me that they could not reinstate or return my money and that all I could do was to SIGN ANOTHER CONTRACT? I wondered if I was talking to another human being??

At that point, I was also told that I had to send back the terminal or else I would owe another $850. This was confirmed in writing. After accepting my plight and resigning myself to the fact that I was screwed, I just decided to give in and take the whole thing as a lesson and I made immediate arrangements to send back the machine (which I did by certified mail and with USPS insurance). I later called to make sure that they received the machine and that everything was OK and concluded on their end. I was told they had received it and that everything was fine and that my account was paid.

END OF STORY? Not quite.

BEGIN CHAPTER 3.

Realizing that my bank account was not safe from NAB, I closed my account and opened up another one. Sure enough, several months later, I received a notice from my bank informing me that they refused a automatic withdrawal from my account for a $79 "compliance fee." I called NAB and told them that I was not going to pay the fee and that I no longer had an open account with them. I was surprised to hear the agent tell me that it was an error of some kind and that they would not debit my account.

Several months later, I received another notice from my bank, this time informing me that NAB was trying to withdraw $850 from my closed account. Again, I called NAB and asked them what was going on...etc. I was told that the $850 was to cover the cost of the terminal. I explained that I returned the terminal as requested and had proof of delivery and that I did not owe them any money. Again, the agent told me that it appeared that they had received the terminal and that everything was OK.

PROBLEM SOLVED? Not yet.

BEGIN CHAPTER 4 (THE GRAND FINALE!)

Months later, I started to receive letters, followed by phone calls from a collection agency, claiming that I owed NAB $850. I explained that my account with NAB was closed, that I did not owe and money and that there must be some kind of mistake. By this point it was becoming a sick joke and I felt like I had entered the Twilight Zone. After several months and several collection agents, my account apparently moved up to the head honcho who deals with the "refusal to pay" types, such as myself. This guy was able to explain to me that I owed $850 for the terminal. I explained to him that I sent it back to NAB and I even faxed him proof.

Several days later he called me back and acknowledged that NAB received the terminal, but that I still owed NAB $850 because all of the fine print in their contract says that it was being given to me for free, etc. etc. but that if I breached the contract I would have to buy it. I explained that he was completely wrong, that NAB demanded the terminal back in writing (or else they were going to hit my account again) and that I sent it back. "Too bad" he said, the terminal is not useful to them anymore because it was specifically coded for your office so you still owe the money. "Then send it back to me and I will pay for it and sell it on EBAY," I said. No can do, he told me. The terminal was probably already reconditioned and given to someone else. What? I thought it was coded for me? Was he making this stuff up as he went along?

I called NAB to talk about this and try and figure out if any of this was true, hoping somehow that they had made some internal error (again). The agent told me that my account was forwarded to a collection agency and that I had to deal with them and there was nothing else they could do for me.

Then I called back the collection agent and I dug in my heels and told him that he was wasting his time because I was not going to pay. Then he proceeded to try to negotiate with me and told me that he could settle it out for $295. I told him that I thought this was extortion and there was no way I was paying them anything.

He proceeded to tell me that it was my right to refuse but that I needed to understand that:

1. They would start by reporting me to all of the credit agencies and this would effect my credit score, of course.

2. NAB would file a lawsuit against me in Fulton County Georgia (which is in the contract) and I would have to travel there to deal with it.

3. That the Court in Fulton County "triple books" the docket and that there was a good chance that my case would not even be heard on the day of the hearing and that I would have have to come back for another hearing.

4. That if I wanted to challenge NAB I would have to go and personally appear in court in Fulton County, pay my own airfare and lodging, of course.

5. That I could hire a lawyer, but that would probably cost more than what they were willing to settle for, so it did not make sense to fight this on principle because I could save money by just settling.

6. That if I did not show up in court or have a lawyer appear, they would seek a default judgment against me, with all collection costs and attorneys fees, which would be a lot more than they were willing to settle for.

AND IN SHORT, that he understood that I was probably getting screwed but that it did not matter because the only thing that really made financial sense was to settle with them and not waste any more time and money on the case.

CHECKMATE.

It seemed obvious to me that this collection agent had gone over this whole thing many many times with other "debtors" and he had it down to an art.

AND ALL THE WHILE, he practically laughed and smirked his way through the whole conversation, like it was some kind of joke to him.

IN THE END, I decided that it only made economic sense for me to settle the case, and so I made a counter-offer and settled for about 1/2 of the $295 he was demanding just to get them off my back and out of my life.

I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE THAT ALL OF THIS HAPPENED TO ME AND THAT I WAS BROUGHT TO MY KNEES AND HAD TO PAY THIS COLLECTION COMPANY MONEY THAT I DID NOT OWE. Sure, I could have challenged them, but at what cost and after how many more hours and time out of my life?

The moral of the story is that you should PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK with this company. Things may work out well for you if you don't step out of line and you are able to continue to fund NAB's money machine. Otherwise, if you need help or customer service, or find yourself in any kind of a situation that does not fit their expectations under the contract, you may be in for the ride of your life. The one thing that definitely saved me money was CLOSING MY BANK ACCOUNT. If I had not done that, NAB would have grabbed the full $850.

Maybe I am wasting more of my time by writing this review. Maybe I am wrong and NAB was right. We will never know. I am sure that their customer service representative will post some type of a follow up to this explaining how I was wrong. Personally, I don't think I was. Would have been nice to have some "human" intervention in this whole thing and someone who really cared and tried to understand my situation and help me so that I could get things set up and do business with my customers and with NAB. Maybe that takes too much time.

So you be the judge. JUST PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Company Response 4/7/2009:April 6, 2009

Dear Merchant,

North American Bancard works very diligently to resolve all customer issues and complaints. Since our inception in 1992, we have worked with over 125,000 merchants of all sizes and levels of complexity. We provide a high level of service and support to our customers, as is evidenced by the low number of complaints we handle. Occasionally we, like any other large company, may make a mistake or mishandle an issue. When these are brought to our attention we resolve them to the best of our ability. Our 250+ employees work hard every day to make doing business with NAB a pleasure for our merchants and stakeholders, all we ask is the opportunity to recover well.

First and foremost, NAB would like to apologize for what sounds like an unusual and extreme unsatisfactory experience that has occurred.

Unfortunately enough information was not provided for us to accurately determine your specific Merchant Account. If your account was incorrectly debited, or you believe your fees have been inadequately advised, then we would need specific Merchant Account information in order to properly address the concerns or correct any errors.

Should you have any questions regarding this response, please have your Merchant number ready and contact me directly at 800-226-2273 Ext.1050, so that your specific situation may be properly researched and addressed.

Here is a story I urge anyone considering a merchant account, or have one already, to read. It involves some very strange practices by a credit card processor, North American Bancard. My hope in writing this is to bring light to this issue, since PCI compliance is an unknown to most small merchants. I hope other processors do not follow in the steps of North American Bancard. I'm not sure if what North American Bancard is doing is illegal, but it sure sounds bad and at least has to be considered deceptive.

Sometime in late 2008 I referred a friend of mine to North American Bancard (NAB) for credit card processing. They ran a small grocery store and needed a simple swipe machine. They received their merchant account from NAB and started their business and use of the machine. Sometime in November/December a statement came in the mail with a note saying that there will be a PCI compliance fee of $79.99. I offered to help find out what this PCI compliance was and get them 'compliant'.

I first spoke to NAB in early December, asking what the fee was for. They said it was to get us PCI compliant. They made it sound pretty simple, pay the fee and you are compliant. The fee was $79.99 per year. I inquired if we can get our compliance from someone else, as it sounded pretty strange to begin with. The representative said I could go somewhere else for the service, and if I provided the compliance paperwork they would remove the charge. It's good to do some research before blindly paying a fee, maybe it was cheaper elsewhere? Some research was due.

Asking a few more questions, I found out that the fee was apparently for help from Mcaffee (the virus and security company) for their PCI compliance service.
Doing a bit of research on the internet, I found the official PCI compliance website, or more properly the "PCI Security Standards Council" at http://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/
You can read a summary about the PCI organization at: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/about/index. shtml
It's basically a council formed by the big credit card companies to come up with security standards to help avoid credit card fraud.

Looking at the website initially can be overwhelming, and I think this is what NAB is counting on, the merchant getting 'lost' in all the regulations. Digging more into the site gave a list of approved security vendors, which I might require the help of, to get PCI compliant. They use acronyms for their certified for these folks.. QSAs (Qualified Security Assessors), PA-QSAs (Payment Application Qualified Security Assessors), ASVs (Approved Scanning Vendors). The heart of the regulations appear to be aimed at big retailers or other big businesses which store your credit card number and other information. Although it applies to everybody, there are obviously differences in the regulations (and compliance requirements) between a grocery store running 5 credit cards per day on a terminal machine and a big company like Sears or Amazon, which might collect and store information on thousands of customers per day. These rules appear to be aimed at preventing the major breaches in customer information (and hence fraud) we hear about in the news so often these days.

A call to one of the approved providers got me some helpful information. He asked me a few questions and in the end told me to go to the PCI compliance website, fill out the appropriate self-assessment questionnaire sign it and that was it. He seemed disappointed when I told him we only had a dial-up terminal, and he explained they mainly deal with big companies who need security advice and scans on their networks and servers. I'm sure he was not happy that I couldn't be a customer of theirs, but he was polite and honest in explaining that I didn't need their service.

I further dug into the PCI compliance website. There I found the 'Self-Assessment Questionnaire'. Reading the requirements again, it states that if you have small volume with only a dial-up terminal, you qualify to fill out the questionnaire and sign it. Sounds good, this is what the security provider told me. We fill out the forms (which stated pretty basic stuff like securing the little paper receipts with the card information on them) signed them and faxed them in to NABs PCI compliance division. This was in early December.

We got a call from NAB in late December stating that the PCI compliance paperwork was incomplete. When asked why, we were given the answer that we needed a 'network scan' from an approved PCI vendor. We explained that we were told by a PCI approved vendor that since we only had a dial-up terminal we didn't require a scan. NAB told us no, that we needed one and if we didn't get one the fee would be charged.

OK, before I continue let me give you some background on the store where this supposed 'scan' has to take place. Its a grocery store about the size of your living room, has two employee/owners, a married couple running the whole thing. The business does not have any computers. The only computer this couple owns is at home, which I estimate is at least 5-8 years old, no internet access (they canceled it a while back when they couldn't figure out how to use the computer). If you have any friends like this you know what I'm talking about, they can't use the mouse properly and it takes them about a minute to find and type out one word. When they do turn it on every 3 months, you get a frantic call asking how they shut it down because you told them that just turning it off was not good... it's START.. on the lower left hand corner.. then SHUT DOWN.

Back to the NAB call.. they told me that I can speak to their compliance provider if I had any questions. OK, good, got their number*, and this turns out to be Mcaffee's PCI compliance division. A call to Mcaffee brings a helpful gentlemen on the phone, I will not use his name on the internet, but will call him M-REP1*. I explained to him the situation and asked about this scan. He knew my situation precisely. He told me that they have been getting a LOT of calls from NAB merchants just like us, and he said that since we only have a dial-up terminal a scan cannot be made. He also told me the exact same thing the PCI compliant representative did (from our initial contact with another PCI verified vendor) on our inquiry several weeks before: To go to the compliance website and fill out the Self-Assessment Questionnaire, sign it and send it to your merchant processor, and that would be all that is required. I said we already did that, thanked him and hung up to call NAB back.

I called NAB back. Spoke to a customer service representative and explained what Mcafee and the original PCI vendor told us.. they put us on hold to ask a supervisor. When they came back they again told us we needed to have a scan done, and that if we didn't get one they would charge us the $79.99 to get it done. I honestly didn't know what to say at that point. What were they going to scan??? No coherent answer was given to this question. After the call I wasn't sure what to do, 2 PCI verified vendors were telling me one thing (one of them being the company NAB was supposedly contracting to do these scans) and NAB was telling me something else. Out of desperation I called Mcafee back.

I called Mcafee back and out of sheer luck I got the same person I spoke to before. I explained to him what NAB said and he seemed outright frustrated, he told me again of all the calls they have been getting from NAB customers, I told him I though this was a big scam, he said nothing. He explained again that since there was no network he could not issue me any 'scan' certificates, and reiterated that all I needed was a self signed certification for the dial-up terminal. I told him I knew this, but NAB didn't want to believe me. I asked if he could send me any official statement about this, he graciously agreed and in a short time I got an official written record from Mcafee's PCI certified compliance department explaining that they could not issue me a scan certificate since there was nothing to scan, they also mentioned (again) that for a dial-up terminal all I had to do was fill out and sign the Self-Assessment Questionnaire, which was available free for everyone on the PCI councils website, he even provided a link to it. Reading the PCI compliance website some more, this makes sense, if you have a plain old dial-up terminal the only possible avenue of fraud is the information on the little receipts it prints which the customer has to sign. If you secure these, there is no other avenue of possible fraud (this is mentioned and its security is required in the certification you have to sign). Of course there is the dial-up terminal itself, but this is provided by NAB and you have no real control of the security aspects of this terminal. By the way, the terminal itself IS PCI compliant already.

I have sent this information to NAB and I'm waiting for their response. I don't expect to hear back from NAB any time soon, it doesn't matter at this point, if I get this charge removed or not I will continue to collect information and post my experiences with NAB, hopefully informing other small merchants of this practice. I know from talking to the PCI representative that this is a widespread issue and NAB is trying to collect erroneous fees from their small unsuspecting merchants, the small month and pop shops who usually will not research this issue and will probably just pay the fee. For these merchants I'm not even sure what the supposed PCI service that NAB is charging for is. Since they always seemed to reject the validity of the self-assessment questionnaire that is posted on the councils site. Their $79.99 scan of thin air will accomplish zero for these merchants. Reviewing, filling out and complying with the councils questionnaire is all that is needed.

I'll leave you with one more bit of information, during my Internet searches I came upon a list put out by VISA which is posted on their site, named the "List of PCI DSS Compliant Service Providers". It is a PDF document with PCI compliance status of service providers. The list is available here:
http://usa/. visa.com/download/merchants/cisp_list_of_cisp_compliant_service_providers.pdf
And as of the end of December 2008, if you do a search in the document for "North American Bancard" you will see them in the list with a compliance date in YELLOW text, what does this mean? According to Visa this is a service provider with a compliance report that is "... 1-60 days late are noted in yellow ..."
Now ask yourself if you are willing to trust or give business to a company that will provide a scan of something they cannot even describe, for a fee of $79.99, something that no one else is willing or capable of doing, and with which they appear to be late in complying with themselves.

If you are anyone in a position to help, State Attorneys office, credit card company personnel (VISA/MASTERCARD/.DISCOVER/AMEX), business organizations, someone from the PCI council, or just have a story or comment about this please email me at pcitrouble@gmail.com

*NOTE: I have omitted names, or used references to certain people, extensions, and some contact information to protect peoples privacy. If I am contacted by official sources who might help in this matter I will provide more information.

Regards,
pcitrouble@gmail.com

Company Response 1/8/2009:Dear Concerned Friend,
North American Bancard works very diligently to resolve all customer issues and complaints. Since our inception in 1992, we have worked with over 125,000 merchants of all sizes and levels of complexity. We provide a high level of service and support to our customers, as is evidenced by the low number of complaints we handle. Occasionally we, like any other large company, may make a mistake or mishandle an issue. When these are brought to our attention we resolve them to the best of our ability. Our 250+ employees work hard every day to make doing business with NAB a pleasure for our merchants and stakeholders, all we ask is the opportunity to recover well.

North American Bancard values the business of all of our merchants and we do not take complaints lightly. In an effort to address your many concerns and provide you with some very pertinent information specific to the PCI compliance mandate, we have compiled the information below for your review. Please keep in mind that your individual concerns regarding your “friend’s account” can only be addressed by making some general assumptions since specific account information and the business name were not provided for accurate research.

There are numerous organizations and groups that cater solely to the Small Business Merchant, such as the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), who have taken an active role in informing Small Businesses such as your friend’s on the requirements and importance of being PCI compliant.
The PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) originally began as five different programs from the five credit card schemes (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and JCB). Each company’s intentions were roughly similar: to create an additional level of protection for consumers by ensuring that merchants meet minimum levels of security when they store, process and transmit cardholder data.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was formed as a neutral body to address conflicts among the credit card schemes in developing a standard. On Dec. 15, 2004 the credit card schemes aligned their individual policies and released the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
North American Bancard values the business of all of our merchants and we take pride in keeping all of our merchants informed and up to date. We ensure that our company information is easily accessible for our merchants and continue to strive to be an industry leader and innovator in the credit card processing industry. It is because of that that we are taking a proactive role in ensuring all of our merchants meet the PCI compliancy requirements. All entities involved in the collection, processing, and storage of credit card information, regardless of size or affiliation must be compliant. It is an industry mandate imposed on all service providers and merchants that accept credit cards.
We notified our merchants of this mandate and the onetime $79 fee on their November 2008 statement. They were advised that the $79 fee provided them with access to the tools that can help them achieve and maintain compliance. We have also advised our merchants that the fee was not imposed on them from McAfee nor does it cover the cost of software. It is the fee assessed to all of our merchants to mitigate the costs associated with becoming and maintaining compliance, updating terminal software nationwide (including enhanced protocols for protection of cardholder data passed by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) mandating how card numbers and expiration dates must appear on receipts), providing applications with enhanced security, and replacing non-compliant hardware.
You posed a question in reference to the “differences in regulations” for merchants of different sizes and sales volume. There definitely are differences in what is required for each merchant type, but it is not solely based on their size or sales volume, it also takes into consideration what they use to process (software, telephone, terminal etc.). Although your friends grocery store may seem small in comparison to a big box retailer, such as Sears as you stated, both companies are at risk for security breaches if they are not in compliance. The PCI compliance mandate not only pertains to how you process credit cards, but also how you store and transmit that credit card information. For example, let’s say all of your terminals and/or software are PCI compliant, but you use some sort of offline accounting system or you store all of your cardholder information on a laptop. The laptop is later stolen, relinquishing you of all that cardholder information. You have now encountered a security breach that could have been avoidable, yet you are now potentially at risk for serious fines, penalties, and/or lawsuits. Hopefully your friends would not make this careless mistake, but there are thousands of merchants big and small that have. If there was not a problem this industry wide mandate would not have occurred. There are many merchants big and small who value these services and need them to ensure their business practices are within guidelines and that they are not penalized for actions that they were unaware of. That is only one example, and there are many more that the PCI council can advise you on. Please keep in mind that we do not work for the PCI council, nor are we on their board or have membership in their organization, but we, like our merchants, must be in compliance.
North American Bancard partnered with McAfee, a leader in the security risk management industry, in late 2008 to give our merchants full access to McAfee PCI Compliance Service at no charge. There are only a few steps our merchants need to complete to determine if they are in compliance. Our retail merchants (those that do not process credit card transactions online, with software, and are not considered e-commerce) will need to go to the website www.NABPCI.com and complete the Self Assessment Questionnaire. Upon completion they will need to fax a copy of the completed Questionnaire to our Customer Service department at (248) 283-6260 for validation. Our E-Commerce merchants (those that are processing via the Internet, with software, and/or online) will also need to go the website and complete the Self Assessment Questionnaire in addition to utilizing the Scan Tool. Upon completion of the Scan Tool, the E-Commerce merchants will receive a compliance Certificate if they are in compliance. This certificate is good for 12 months and they will also need to fax it to our Customer Service Department for validation at the number stated above.
Please note that some terminals are capable of processing credit card transactions online (IP) and via dial-up. Merchants with these terminals would be required to complete the Scan Tool regardless of how they process to ensure the device itself is compliant. In regards to your concern pertaining to the “network scan”, without the account number or business name we are unable to identify your friend’s specific account, and therefore have no way of accurately identifying which type of equipment they have or if the information they were provided with was inaccurate.
In conclusion, all merchants, whether small or large, need to be PCI compliant. The payment brands have collectively adopted PCI DSS as the requirements for organizations that process, store or transmit payment cardholder data. The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) is responsible for managing the security standards while each individual payment brand is responsible for managing and enforcing compliance to these standards. For questions regarding compliance validation requirements and deadlines as well as compliance reporting requirements, please advise your friend to contact North American Bancard’s Customer Service Department at (1800) 226-2273 extension 1300. In regards to refunding the onetime only fee of $79, we will do so if the merchant became compliant prior to our notification in November 2008. For more information regarding the PCI security standards, please refer to their website https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/.

Sincerely,
North American Bancard

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They Were Scamming Me From the Momentent They First Called.

Posted by Christine on 03/14/2014

Rating: 1/51

TROY, MICHIGAN -- This is a warning to small business owners. DO NOT do business with North American Bankcard. or any of their shelter businesses which include among some names Lease Finance Group Global Payment Future Payment T Future Pay Tech and Bankcard 8600. They are scam artists. They told me they can save me a lot of money if I processed through them. They can do it for 1% no extra fees they told me that you are not locked into a long term contract and if you cancel it will only cost you a minimum fee I was told $99.00. There Rep came to my store and told me one lie after another. I was promised that there was no fee for the credit card machine I would be paying 1% on all of my transactions credit and debit alike + 19 cents per transaction. That added up to less than I was paying sounded good to me. I was promised that there were no hidden fees and rates would not go up as long as I was processing through them. I was very busy that day and had to take care of customers and answer the phones, but I mad time for Randal their Rep He explained that the paperwork I was filling out was just saying I had the use of their machine free of charge and that if I had any problems with it they would send another free of charge up to 2 times. He put zeros in all of the spots on the contract and had me sign and initial then faxed the paperwork off. When I answered the phone at the store, the representative walked out the door with the contract and drove off. Then stopped answering my phone calls. the processing company denied any responsibility for his actions I asked over and over for a copy of the contract told them that I did not want to do business with them and wanted to cancel services. They were not depositing the correct amount of money in my account and the amount they were taking out was much more than I had been paying my original processor. Then another company Lease Finance Group withdrew $124.00. I called North American Bankcard and they said that it not them who I . I had been told by the representative that they didn't charge for the machines use. The paperwork I signed had a 0 in that space. I asked again for a copy of the contract they said I would have to call Lease Finance I called Lease Finance and they said that I sign a non-cancelable contract for 6 years. I told them I did not agree to that. I demanded a copy of the contract and fought with them and North American Bankcard for about 2 weeks finally Lease Finance faxed me 3 pages of their 9 page contract. It said I had 2 weeks from the day I received the machine to cancel in writing but the two weeks were up. They basically told me that it was my fault for getting duped and that I deserved it because I was stupid. I never received the 26 page contract from North American Bank Card. North American Bankcard gave me the run around transferring me from one person to the next, each person contradicted what the last said. They kept telling me that they weren't responsible for what their Rep did. Finally I spoke to a "supervisor" who said that he felt bad about what the representative had done and that they don't condone what he did so he was fired. I told him that I did not trust them and did not want to do business with them. I wanted out of the contract I was tricked into. He told me there was nothing they could do about it. The contract was between Lease Finance and my business. I called lease finance company and told them that I was tricked and I finally filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau against both companies. In the complaint I said I DO NOT WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY I said to resolve it I want North American Bankcard to pay the $8928.00 cancellation fee that Lease Finance wanted to charge me for the machine that was worth about $200. I got nowhere with either complaint. Lease finance said that it was not their fault that I was Stupid enough to sign the agreement and basically said I deserved to be ripped off but if I could trick someone into taking over my lease I could still get out of it. They are now charging me $133.00 a month for a machine that I do not use. Fast forward to now North American Bankcard drained my bank account making withdrawals under 4 different names in the amounts of $272.90, $46.45 $78.45 $133.61 $152.45 $895.00 $897.00 causing $90 in over drafts in January. It caused my account to be over drawn by $1610.00 and to bounce a check at Lowe's for $174 so there's a fee for that from Lows. out of the $2565.86 that they took. $1792.00 of those were returned for insufficient funds. But hey got $683.89 + the 90 off overdraft fees. so I am was out 773.89. I ended up losing almost $800.00 in January. Then in February pulled it again causing over $400.00 in losses. and in March almost $500.00 in losses. There are thousands of complaints on different site on the web about this company yet they are still in business. North American Bankcard is sponsored by HSBC Bank USA, National Association, Buffalo, NY and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, CA as its Acquiring Banks.

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NABANCARD Services - DON'T EVER USE THEM!!!

Posted by Thom on 04/02/2013

Rating: 1/51

TROY, MICHIGAN -- I switched from my bank's credit card processing service because the price was higher than what NABANCARD Services had promised me in both verbal and written format. I had all my own equipment so there was not problem with me switching over I was told. However, when I called to have it reprogrammed I was told there was a password on the machine from my old processing company even before we tried to program the machine. When I called my old company I was told there was not password and they should be able to take care of it with no problem. I called back again and informed the person in India of this and was told no, there was a password and they would not even try if I did not have it. So, I was not able to use my machine with NABANCARD at all because it was never programmed.

I do not process a great deal of credit/debit cards in my office but wanted to have the service available for my clients. The amount I was contracted to pay was around $9.00 per month. However, as time went on the payment went higher and higher reaching an amount of $30.65 per month and I had not processed a payment through their system at all. So basically I was paying for the service at over 3.25 times more than what I was contracted for. Plus, they took an additional $100+ out for some sort of Government mandated fee, which of course I was not told about. When I called I was told that I should have been informed of this fee. I found out later my bank had been taking it out month by month and this was why the monthly fee was higher with them. But when I added in the monthly fee plus the one time government mandated fee I was paying more on a yearly basis.

When I called to ask why the service was so high I was told I had not taken a class on credit card processing and that I was being "penalized" for not doing so. The funny thing is, it is not in the contract and I was never informed I was to take this "class". I then canceled my service by faxing in the document sent to me on February 6, 2013. I retained a copy of the fax confirmation after sending it. In March, the $30.65 was charged again to my account. I called to find out why and was told the request had not been received in their office. I informed them I had the confirmation and this was not acceptable to them. I then faxed the scanned copy, actually the original fax again that was electronically stored, to them again. I asked if I would have any further charges from them at all. I was told no, and the account would be closed. I asked for the $30.65 to be refunded to me and I was told they could not do that amount but would refund $25.00 as a "courtesy" to me. I told them it was worth the $5.00 not to have to wait on hold for 35 min.

Lo and behold today I checked my account and there again was the $30.65 charge for April. I called again and also had to wait on hold for 25 min until someone answered. I was now told that they have up to 30 days in which to cancel my account and it had not been 30 days. So, one person tells me one thing and another tells me something else. So, I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told they could not refund me the full $30.65 but that he would be happy to refund me $25.00, again courtesy fee.

If you are looking for a credit/debit card processing company do not, I repeat do not, use these guys. They are a total rip off and will only bleed you dry for fee after fee after fee.

Base on what NABC advertised above. In late August, 2012, I called the representative and he showed up next day. He asked me sign the paper in order to keep the rate and will give a copy of what I signed when he come back to install the credit card terminal. Yes, the terminal installed, but he never give a copy. In the first 2 months I called this agent so many times to ask for a copy, he never picked up my calls, and I even Left him a lot of messages. So I had to call his company, the representative who I talked with, I asked "why is your representative the one who I first talked and signed paper with never answered my calls and never gave me a copy" this guy said apology to me for that and he said he is going to mail me a copy. By the way I asked him if in the future some point I don't like this service any more, can I cancel? He yes I can cancel, but I have to pay for the early termination fee because he said I signed the contract for 3 years. So disappointed! I never knew that. This time was in late Oct. or early Nov., 2012, until now 12/11/2012 I haven't got a copy that the representative asked me to sign in order to keep the rate, not a contract.
Nov., 2012 statement. Deposit totals $2297.75. It charged me $70.45. Couple days after I got another Nov., 2012 statement total charge is $116.90 from $2297.75 total deposits.
I called the agent, who I first dealt with, in days at the end he picked up my phone and told me scan the statement and email him then he will explain it, after that I kept calling him again and again he never answered my calls. So tired, so disappointed, and so headache.

Don't do business with this North American Bancard.
I will tell every single friend of mine about how bad of NABC service and on Facebook or everything I can reach out to people.

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Ripped Off in Oklahoma

Posted on 03/14/2012

Rating: 1/51

TROY, MICHIGAN -- I wish we had knowledge about this web site before this company contacted us. We were very doubtful about using a credit card machine. But a sales representative from this company assured us that this was the best way to go and they guaranteed that they had the best rates. we wanted to know every fee and charge with taxes so that there wouldn't be any surprises. The representative said no surprises the total package includes: free equipment and a 60 day free trial. $25.00 monthly fee if there was no credit card sales that month. $.18 per transaction and a $5.00 statement fee. Told the representative that needed time to discuss with my partner. Before could do much discussing representative had already called back wanting us to sign before plan would change. He said this was a great bargain, that he should know he used to be a mortgage broker and had service with the company. He loved the companies services so well that he shut down his business and went to work for NAB.

Of course pulled us in with "he personally recommended". We asked a few more questions, one being "what happens within the 60 days if we don't like the service?" The representative said that NAB would send a pick-up order at no cost to us, to send the machine back. The first month that we did not use the machine the bill was supposed to be $30.00, it was seriously over the quoted price! So we called the company and the representative that answered told us that the original representative was fired because he gave us a great deal that wasn't a plan that NAB offered. The new representative said first of all our contract should have only been for 30 day free trial, that they never have offered 60 day trials. (since then we have seen an add saying $0 down set up fee and a 90 day free trial)We told new representative we wanted to cancel to send the pick-up ticket for the machine. We called to cancel several times before the 60 day trial was over. The Pick-up ticket wasn't ever sent. After 60 days was up we were still trying to cancel and they told us we had to fill out certain papers to cancel. We asked for those papers and did not receive them. We called again for the papers and when we did finally receive them, the papers stated that there is a cancellation fee of $900.00. We did not agree to this because we had been trying to cancel with NAB before our 60 day trial was up, therefore we did not sign the papers. We went a few months without any credit card sales. Then they hit us with a bill for $295.00 for some sort of (hidden) fees. We again called the company trying to take care of this situation. We could never come up with any kind of agreement.

The last statement that we received is dated 8-31-11. Never heard from them until yesterday, 8-13-12. From a collection agent wanting us to pay $1835.00 but would settle for $1200.00.

(we had to update this review - because doing research we found some misplace papers and bills. This new review is correct.)Also, letting every one know we are sending this informaion to the BBB. If enough of us contact the Better Business Bureau about this company, maybe we can prevent NAB from doing this kind of thing to other small businesses or companies.
When looking through our papers I have discovered that we did not receive all of the papers for the contract. We are missing pages 2-8. We hadn't noticed because it was faxed to us and at the top of the first page it says 1 of 8 pages sent. The last page says 8 of 8.
How does these people sleep at night knowing they are misleading and stealing from inoccent people? What else am I going to find out while doing all of this research? If any one has an attorney please leave a message or have your attorney leave message so that we may get in contact. Someone has to stop these people from getting away with this.
Here I am again updating my review: Not only does it seem like NAB sales representatives have a script when trying to sell to customers. It seems they follow a script about what pages to send to the customers. Now after having read complaints on this site, we have descovered that there is a possible script when responding to the customers as well. Be your own judge, pick a few complaints and scroll down to the company response. You might be amazed at what they say. The responses from NAB, in at least one paragraph of several responses are so similar - almost exactly word for word. (very curious!)

[removed solicitation for legal contact]

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Worst Customer Service Reps With Bad Attitudes And Love To Rub Small Business Owners

Posted by Advance Care Medical Group on 06/02/2009

When I signed on to credit cards processing contract for North American Bancard in early 2004 as favor for one of my longtime patient, this is beginning of nightmare worse than dealing with worst HMO insurance ever. I contacted their customer service representative in 2005 after 18 months of contract with them to inform them that my company is dissolving. The representative with no apparent manner told me "you have signed on 3 years contracts and it will cost your $1200 early termination fee or you can continue to pay $40 per month for next 18 months which will run you $720 which will be cheaper". I told her this is highway robbery and I need to speak to her supervisor, she put me on hold for over a hour. Another rude person with no education background stated "it ain't my problem and if you're not going to pay, we'll ruin your personal credit for rest of your living soul" Facing with her blackmails, I unwillingly asked her if I paid her company $40 per month for next 18 months and my contract is terminating. She stated I got her word on it and she'll sent me termination notice for me to fill out in which I quickly completed the form and faxed back to NAB. I called back NAB couple days later and was told by another rude representative that they never receive anything and I told her to wait next to fax while we're talking and I had faxed another copy of termination and she finally claimed that she received it but I must pay $40 per month which will be automatically debited from my checking account. After they collected $720 for not providing any services for 18 months, I noticed they continue to debit $40 per month after 18 months. I called their customer disservice dept, another rude representative claimed that they can continue to charge me $40 per month EVEN after my account is terminated. I quickly close my checking account from my defunct business.

Somehow, these robbers found my checking account from my new business and continue to debit $40 per months. After I found it out several months later and few hundred short in my checking account, I called these NAB people and they told me that my account is terminated and they'll refund my overcharges back. Of course, they never refund any money and when I inquire how can they debit my new checking account without my authorization and they claimed they can debit any account anytime that they wish. I quickly inform my bank to stop paying NAB. NAB immediately sent my account to their collection company which must hire the same rude reps and began to make harassing phone call @ 6AM every morning. These people refused to hear any explanation but threatened that they will "f*** with my credit profile for both business and personal" I tried to called NAB Customer Disservice dept and of course received the same run around with transferring of my call to 6 different rude peoples and finally stated "your account is in collection and there ain't nothing we can tell you about your account and you better paying these collection folks up or we'll sent you to more collection companies to harass you."

After more than $1000 defrauded by NAB, I was checking blog sites for complaints again NAB and I found there are many small business owners like me who have been defrauded by NAB. I guess this must be their business model to defraud many small businesses. If anyone wants to start class action lawsuits to protect innocent small folks like us, please count me in.

Company Response 6/5/2009:June 4, 2009

Dear Merchant,

NAB works very diligently to resolve all customer issues and complaints. Since our inception in 1992, we have worked with over 125,000 merchants of all sizes and levels of complexity. We provide a high level of service and support to our customers, as is evidenced by the low number of complaints we handle. Occasionally we, like any other large company, may make a mistake or mishandle an issue. When these are brought to our attention we resolve them to the best of our ability. Our 250+ employees work hard every day to make doing business with NAB a pleasure for our merchants and stakeholders, all we ask is the opportunity to recover well.

First and foremost, NAB would like to apologize for what sounds like an unusual and extreme unsatisfactory experience that occurred.

In regards to the cancellation fee, Section 13 contained in the Terms and Conditions clearly states, “Any merchant who terminates this agreement prior to it's termination date is responsible for any and all monthly fees assessed under the Agreement for the remainder of the then existing term of the Agreement, including all minimum monthly fee commitments, which in no case shall be less than $295.00.”

If you feel that your account was incorrectly debited, or your fees have been inadequately advised, then we would need specific information in order to properly address the concerns or correct any errors. Please have your Merchant Account number ready, and contact our Customer Service Department at 800-226-2273, extension 1300 so that your specific situation may be properly researched and addressed.

Should you have any questions regarding this response, please have your Merchant number ready and contact our Customer Service at 800-226-2273 Ext.1300.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Paull
Research Manager

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Ultimate Scam Artists... Lies, Lies Lies Beware!!!

Posted by TIM on 03/05/2013

Rating: 1/51

TROY, MICHIGAN -- I should have trusted my gut from the beginning as the originating sales representative with this company radiated sleaze and fast talking deception. I have asked for his name on several occasions and been told there is known way to trace that back as they are "independent reps". Never ever disclosed the three year contract clause with hundreds and hundreds of $'s in early termination fees. 6 different itemized monthly fees totally over $62.00 a month and that is if you don't use the services. There is even more cost if you do. I was told that my monthly service fee would be "A total" of $9.95. They will float your incoming funds for days before releasing them to you then charge more fees.
Terms of termination on supposedly on page 3 or 4 of a contract that I was never given a copy of, Or at least not a complete copy. What was sent was a 2 page merchant services agreement (with no page numbers) entitled "Terms and Conditions of Merchant Service Agreement. It has numbered items 1 through 11 and the second page isn't numbered at all. Even the representative taking my call today to inquire about terminating lied on his write up that was auto emailed to me saying he had offered me the chance to transfer this account to another merchant which was never mentioned. There is a lot more to this story but that's all I am writing until I have met with my attorney. After scamming me for months now they want $698.60 to say good by to them. Watch out! Once they have your bank account info you don't have a prayer.

Bottom Line is that this company is absolutely horrible to deal with. Just don't do it or you will be sorry!

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PCI Compliance Fees

Posted by spyrus on 09/17/2012

Rating: 2/51

I have been dealing with this issue for 3 years now, North American fails to inform you in the Merchant Agreement that you sign you will be charged a PCI Compliance fee that is equal to the same amount you pay in monthly fees for their services, the merchant agreement you sign states you must be PCI Compliant, but states nothing about the fee, the agreement gives them the right to charge more or change fees with notice, but it says nothing about this large fee in advance, and THEY know in advance they will charge you this large fee. It is a deceptive practice....my latest letter to them on this issue:

Sirs,

In my questioning of your charging me a PCI compliance fee, which I’ve been questioning since you first started to charge me the fee, your last explanation is one for the record books. Your representative points to a section of your Merchant agreement, but admits the fee isn’t as detailed as it should be, but that detail should have been explained by your agent. But that is the problem, it wasn’t explained in detail by your Merchant agreement, nor was it explained by your agent, and I specifically asked the agent about the fee before I signed your agreement that doesn’t provide any detail about the actual fee, you knew you’d be charging me before I signed that agreement.

You folks can parse as many words as you want, and point to things in your agreement that aren’t specific, but the bottom line is, you’re charging me a fee that is almost equal to the monthly fee I agreed in advance to pay, and you knew you’d charge me that fee before I signed your agreement. Certainly your agreement gives you the right to add fees that I hadn’t agreed too in advance. But to charge me such a large fee without disclosing it in advance is a deceptive practice. If you continue to charge me this fee, I will remember your deception when I find a new provider when this agreement does come to an end.

Company Response 10/01/2012:Unfortunately, we are not able to locate your specific account based on your post, however I'd love to speak with you further regarding it.
Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience. I can be reached via email response@nabancard.com or by phone 866-485-8999 x1443. If I do not answer please leave a message. Again, we apologize for any inconveniences and I look forward to speaking to you. Thank you for your time. Michele B, Research Ananyst.